The House Tour

I have been spending my free time this week admiring all of the beautifully decorated homes on Gina's Summer Home Tour Link Party.  I debated whether or not to take the time to share our home and in the end I decided I could at least get this post started and add to it!  You can see other posts I've written about our home under the home label.

I absolutely love our house in the summer!  Of course, it helps that I have the summers off and am generally in a much better mood during June and July, too!  I love spending time outside and being with the kids (when they aren't arguing) and savoring the slower schedule that summer allows.  Here are a few of the reasons I adore summer!



We screened in our back deck in 2007. It really is an extension of our home from April til October. I recently added a new table and Jeff built the potting table/bar/storage following directions from Thrifty Decor Chic last year.

We recently completed a DIY kitchen makeover.  I couldn't be more happy with how it turned out!  It was one of those things where I started to pick at something, which turned into uh-oh now I have to remove all of this, which turned into, now we have to replace all of it, and pretty soon it was a mini makeover!



We tore out the white tile back splash and white laminate counters and removed some upper cabinets.  Jeff extended the height of the uppers, added a bead board back splash, stained and installed an IKEA butcher block counter, and added open shelving.  We read all sorts of tutorials online and spent about $800 for everything.  I think it now looks like a more expensive kitchen for sure!



The foyer is pretty much complete.  As well as the reading nook in the upstairs hallway with the striped wall that I love!  I'm continually adding artwork to the walls and I love showcasing the kids' work there.

The master bedroom and bath are in need of an overhaul.  Crossing my fingers that this might happen within the year!  I love the quilt my mom made me and that I can lay in my bed and see our pretty striped hallway with the Be Filled with Joy print.  What a great daily reminder!


Our third floor is shared by our oldest and youngest children.  We pulled up the carpet and painted the plywood subfloor white and it is my favorite flooring in the house!  I was inspired by Emily at Crisp Interiors.  If you are thinking of painting your floors, don't delay!  Do it!  You will not regret it!

We are still tweaking both bedrooms, so check back!



My middle two kids' rooms, a boy and a girl, have stayed pretty much the same for the last 7 years.  They are due for a change!  Especially since my daughter is not girly at all.  She would much rather have a blue and red room with dragons every where.  I'm still thinking on how to come up with something we would both like!  I do love the chalkboard wall in my son's room though!

Our living room has been one of the toughest rooms to "get right" in our house.  It is long and narrow which has made furniture placement difficult.  I think I'm getting there and know I will continue to work on this room often.



Thank you for stopping by and I do hope you'll visit again soon!  Our crazy, busy family of 6 always has something going on and I love to share little tidbits of life and love with you here.

Live Fully, Share Love, and Be Awesome!

Freshening Up

My project for the summer is to spruce up our back porch.  We seem to have most of our parties at the beginning of summer (May) which is great because Jeff and I work best under a deadline!  He worked his tail off getting mulch spread and painting and putting together this picnic table.



I fell in love with Paige's white table in a picture I saw a few weeks ago and knew that I wanted one for our back porch.



I love it!  It fits the space much better than our old table which is now sitting out by the pool complete with a $20 Aldi umbrella.  Don't you love Aldi? :)



I opened both doors to the porch this afternoon and just enjoyed the cross breeze while looking out onto our  "getting there" back porch!

 

I can see lunches being eaten out there very soon!

Ugly to Pretty

I love to decorate and create for cheap.

Who doesn't, right?

I found a couple of canvas paintings with good frames at recent trips to the thrift store.  I knew when I bought my Start Being Awesome painting at the Country Living Fair this fall, that I could so recreate it.  My versions ended up being about 5x less.

Of course, in my rush to just spend the 20 min. of free time I had to finally complete this project after the paintings sat in my garage for a month, I didn't take any before pictures.

But here are the pretty afters.













You can find lots of tutorials on the internet to make your own word art. What quote would you use?

Kitchen Dreaming

In my spare time I love to read decor magazines, blogs, and check out the home decor section of Pinterest.  I love beautiful houses and love to make mine beautiful for my family.

We recently enlisted the help of one of Jeff's coworkers to help us dream about redoing our kitchen.  I love that we can see the designs and manipulate them in the online software program (that Jeff helped develop!).

Of course, anything we do will be a ways down the road and we will try to diy it as much as possible to cut down on costs.  Both of the designs make much more sense than how our kitchen is currently laid out.  One consists of just reworking the layout in the current space and the other we would do a real demo by removing a wall and moving the door to the garage.  I'm thinking we could make the kitchen work without the major remodel.  (I may just be seeing $$$.)  What is your opinion?

At the Office

I finished Coco's "office" yesterday by purchasing a stool.  I had been on the lookout for a school lab stool for weeks, but couldn't find anywhere that would ship them individually.  I had spied this stool at a local antique shop and went ahead a got it.

He has loved playing school and as you can see, he loves his chalkboard wall, too!

Have you tried chalkboard paint yet? What do you think?

2013 Home To Do List

Happy New Year!

It is time for my annual link up to Nester's Home To Do List.  I love making this list to keep me organized and to help me set project goals.  While I didn't get many projects from my 2012 list completed, I'm not detered!  I'm planning on taking a year older Baby A with me to volleyball tournaments this year to allow Jeff to have some days where he can focus on some projects without dealing with the rest of us.  We'll see!

Without further ado, here is my list featuring my inspirational pins!

Lizzy's Room

We have her floor painted white-can't wait to show you that!  But, we need to put it all together and finish this girl's room.  I would also love to finish her bathroom, too.

 

Source: 6thstreetdesignschool.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

 

She has two dormers which are a total waste of space right now.  Since they are only 33 inches wide, we're going to have to build a desk/table that I would like for her to use for putting on her make up and jewlery.  I'm planning on colorful corbells, a white painted top fitted with a piece of glass for easy cleaning and to allow her to put inspirational photos underneath.

Source: designmaze-tim.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

I also love the idea of a monogrammed stool like this.

 

Source: inspiracionline.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

 

 

 

 

Source: somethinglikethatdesigns.com via Sara on Pinterest

 

The walls surrounding would be great for jewlrey storage.  I'm still thinking of make up storage.  Suggestions?

We also need to make a gallery wall.  We've purchased some frames at thrift stores that we will spray paint (color yet to be decided).  I like the look of colorful frames, but we'll have to see.

Source: runninglawyer.blogspot.com via Sara on Pinterest

I have her floor tile picked out and plan on making a cafe curtain like I saw at the Southern Living Idea House this fall to hide the window air conditioner.

 

The Master

We've made a good start on getting this space how we like it.  We need to rip up the carpet and add new floors.  I'm thinking of going ahead and going dark even though it won't match the other floors.  Eventually, we will restain everything to match.

The bathroom needs to be completely redone.  We will keep the footprint the same which will cut on costs.  I'm again drawing lots of inspiration from the SL Idea House.

Source: southernhospitalityblog.com via Jamie on Pinterest

plank walls, wood floor, clawfoot tub= perfection

The Kitchen

I have lots of ideas and lucky for me Jeff can visit a kitchen designer in his building!  He will be talking to her tomorrow.  I'm excited!

The Outside

This was a goal for last year.  I'm hoping since I'm planning a sweet sixteen party this summer my plans will come to fruition!

I can't wait to see what you have planned for this year! 

The 2012 List

I always like to take a look back at the year to see what home projects we actually completed (or in this year's case, what wasn't completed).  If you don't remember my 2012 To Do List you can check it out here.

Out of that list, the only completed project was the foyer.  :(

We did do some other projects that just didn't make it onto the blog and lots are still in progress.  Carpet has been ripped up this week and the last few coats of poly are going on today.  Hopefully, I will have a reveal for you soon!

Our reading nook is complete and I'm still making tweaks to the upstairs hallway adding lots of art.

What home projects were checked off your list this year? Stay tunned for my 2013 list!

Getting Back to Normal

The undecorating of Christmas is a daunting and sad one for me.  I so enjoy the holiday and the coziness the lights and decorations give the house.  Things seem so bare when it is all put away.  It is daunting because the kids are home.  Enough said.

So, today was spent getting things put away.  I made a good dent. 

Jeff also ripped up the carpet in Baby A's room.  I'm hoping that I do not have to post finishing the painting of the stairs and floors for my annual home to do list for 2013.  It would be the 3rd year to post that.  Yikes!  I have high hopes that it will be done over the next few days!



Do you loathe taking down your Christmas decorations, too?  Are there any projects you are trying to get completed before the New Year?

The Entry Finale

I thought it would never happen.  But, my entry is really complete.  Really!  Finished!  Done!

I've posted about the entry before when we painted, decided on what to hang along the stairs, and when Jeff added some trim and hooks.  Here's a quick recap in pictures.

 



So, everything looked good-except the front door.  I had been wanting to get a new door for YEARS, but those things are pricey.

Hello, dark and outdated foyer.  Blah.

Then, this past summer I found the front door that I had been wanting for.ev.er at that big orange box store.  I sent Jeff a picture and asked him to look around for me.  Guess what?  He found THE door ON SALE because this particular one had a little knick off of one of the bottom corners!  We paid a whopping $39!  All we had to do was stain and hang it!  And my handy dandy  man did it all himself.  We even reused the hardware from the old door.  Take a look at this gorgeousness.

 

The amount of light our entry now gets is amazing.  We love it!   You can't even see the knick because it was cut off when we had to trim the door to size!  Oh, and no worries about privacy here.  We live in the middle of the woods.  So thankful.

 

 

My super talented sister made this beautiful wreath for me this fall.  It is the perfect jewlrey to our beautiful new door and finished entry!

Thrify Decor Chick's Link Up was the perfect excuse to finally write this post!

Southern Living Idea House

At the beginning of October Jeff and I were able to get a night and day away.  It was much needed and we so enjoyed it!  My sweet, sweet husband is happy to do anything I like to do.  So, our weekend consisted of eating out, the Southern Living Idea House, IKEA, and a craft fair.  Like I said-sweet.

I absolutely loved the Idea House.  Historic farm houses are my favorite.  Maybe one day we will even live in one!  I can't wait to go back again and visit the house decorated for Christmas. 

The house was so my style and I snapped these pictures, not worrying about white balance or getting the perfect shot at all, but to help me remember and incorporate the ideas into my own home.  I'm sharing with you because maybe they will inspire you as well!

I would love to have something similar to this table on our back porch.  I like that the benches are not attached making it easier for adults to get in and out!

I've never met anyone who doesn't love a porch swing.  We used to put the babies to sleep on our swing and with one like this, we would have been asleep, too!

Chippy furniture and plaid.  Swoon.  And what a creative use of space under a stairway.

This half bath on the first floor was a deep gray.  I love how they painted the walls and ceilings.  We've done the same with our half bath except in navy.  It really does a small room right to have the walls and ceiling the same.  I also loved the cafe curtains.  I plan to add cafe curtains to Lizzy's bathroom to hide the window air conditioner.

The faucet speaks for itself, no?

They had these panels on either side of the front door and duplicated it at the end of the hallway at the back door.  These are from Ballard Designs, but you could easily make your own.  And paneled walls?  Already planning..

I was really looking forward to seeing the IKEA kitchen.  It didn't disappoint!  Love the chevron runner, too.

Does this not scream farmhouse.  I would love to have something similar.  Open shelving is so in right now and I am a fan!

I've been racking my brain trying to think where I could do this paint treatment in my house.

A great use of vintage locker crates.  I love my counter in my laundry room.  Mine doesn't have the cabinet and sink on the other wall like this laundry room did though.  They also used chalk board paint on the walls.  I'm not a huge fan of whole rooms being painted in chalk board paint, but I love it in smaller doses.

A brick floor adds such character and I would die to have a mudroom.  The farm animal paintings throughout the house definitley inspired my purchases at the Country Living Fair last weekend!

 Jeff and I both loved this teen suite above the garage with its own stair entrance off the mudroom.

 

I have my eyes open for a vintage chippy table.  I have plans, people.  :)

Painted furniture always draws me in and I love the gingham on the chair.

Barn doors are also very in right now. 

 

Another great use of a primative table.  Lots of the bathrooms in the house placed the sinks in front of the window hanging a mirror on the window.  Love the soap on a dish.

A total IKEA bedroom.  Love the buffalo check!

I plan on adding a tile floor like this to our 3rd floor bath.  I'm slowly, but surely working on that space.

Vintage stool?  Check!  Thanks to the CL Fair!

These are also from Ballard but could be duplicated easily.

 

You can see more of the house here.  And a couple of my favorite bloggers (here and here) have also blogged about their trips (and taken better photos!).  I do have the resource book, so if you see anything you like and want to know where it is from, just ask!